It may just be me and the circles I move in, but I am highly dubious about this claim by Sinead Cosgrove.

It may just be my view and the circles I move it, but I don’t know people who think that way about a commercial company. Consumers whom I know male choices based, on the one hand, value or choice, or, on the other hand, on political or ethical grounds.

For example, a colleague refuses to buy fruit that has come from Israel, a friend makes a point of buying as much Fairtrade as she can get, and — apposite given the nature of the business under discussion in this post — I chose my mobile phone company on the basis of whether they recognise trade unions.

I have heard people say they want [Enda Kenny | Eamon Gilmore | Brian Cowen] to stand up for themself to [Enda Kenny | Eamon Gilmore | Brian Cowen], and similar points made about the manager or captain of a favourite sports team.

And I have, in some of the places I have worked, heard senior executives say that “we” needed to stand up to a competitor. I have also heard that line used when working in a public sector body when referring to private organisation that my employer regulates.

However, I have never heard a consumer say they want their supplier of product x to “stand up for itself” against a competitor.

If the likes of a political party (or IBEC or Congress or CORI or the NLGF) made a claim like this about a survey, I would be skeptical about that claim. And I am as skeptical about Sinead Cosgrove’s claim. What form did the research take? How were the participants selected? Who was or were the independent researcher or researchers? What were the questions asked? How were they framed?